December 12, 2012

Will the World End on December 21? Ask a Maya!

Will the world
end come to an end on December 21? We
certainly hope not; we have some great webcasts coming up in January and February. But before we mention those, there’s a full weekend of webcasts to watch from the museum's Guatemalan festival December 15 & 16.

The name of
festival,which takes place throughout the museum, is Bak´tun 13: A Guatemalan
Celebration of Time. 13 Bak´tun—the date on the Maya Long Count calendar coinciding with December 21, 2012—marks the end of a 5,125-year era and a new beginning as the Long Count resets. Guatemala is the heart of traditional Maya territory, which
extends through most of Central America, including southern Mexico, Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize. Far from reaching the end of time, the Maya are very much a living culture
today. Definitely something to celebrate!

The Ways of the Days: Maya Calendar Tradition and the Way of Life Saturday, December 15, 11:30 am EST

Roderico
Teni is a Maya–Qeqchi culture bearer who has worked on cultural preservation
and social improvement in Maya communities of the Guatemalan highlands. He is
also a Maya day-keeper, one of the spiritual guides who advise communities, in part by consulting the 260-day sacred calendar, Tzolk´in (called the Chol Q´ij in K´iche´ Mayan). Jose
Barreiro, director of the museum’s Office of Latin American, will facilitate conversation about the Maya calendar and culture.
Audience participation is welcomed, and our webcast audience is encouraged to participate via Twitter. Tweet your comments and questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the
hashtag #MayaCalendar.

Maya from the Inside: The 13 Bak´tun as Challenge to the Western Mind Saturday, December 15, 2 pm EST

Dr. Victor Montejo. Photo used with permission

Victor
Montejo, a Jakaltek Maya originally from Guatemala, will talk on the deep meaning of Maya culture and
history. An internationally recognized scholar, Dr. Montejo is the author of several major publications, including Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan
Village; Voices from Exile: Violence and Survival in Modern Maya History; Maya
Intellectual Renaissance: Critical Essays on Identity, Representation and
Leadership; Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Mayas; and Q´anil: Man of Lightning. His current projects focus on indigenous
migration and transnationalism, and developing a curriculum in Native
knowledge and epistemology in his new manuscript, Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures. The
audience will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of his
presentation. Again, webcast audience members may tweet comments and
questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the
hashtag #MayaCalendar.

Three events will be
featured in this webcast from the museum's Potomac Atrium: "Timeline of Guatemalan
Fashion" shines a spotlight on Maya textiles from the 1930s to
the present to show the changes that have impacted Maya textiles over
the last 80 years. Following the look at textiles, enjoy the music of the
traditional marimba under the direction of Fernando Salseño of Pequena
Marimba Internacional. Finally, Grupo AWAL presents traditional dances from
Concepcion Chiquirichapa in Guatemala. The dances are based on a cylindrical
calendar cycle.

Bak’tun 13: A Guatemalan Celebration of Time Sunday, December 16, 3 pm EST

Two
festival events are repeated in this webcast: Traditional marimba under the direction of Fernando Salseño of Pequena Marimba
Internacional and a presentation of traditional dances from Concepcion
Chiquirichapa in Guatemala Grupo AWAL.

Upcoming Webcasts | January & February 2013

Assuming the world doesn’t
end on December 21, more webcasts of events at the National Museum of the American
Indian are coming in January and February.

This Indian Country: American Indian Activists and the Place They MadeFriday, January 18, 2 to 3 pm EST

Join noted historian Frederick E. Hoxie as he talks about his new book, This Indian Country:
American Indian Activists and the Place They Made, about political activism
that led to hard-won victories in the courts and civil rights campaigns, rather than on the
battlefield. It is a story of both famous and obscure Indian lawyers, tribal
leaders, activists, and commentators who have sought to bridge the distance
between indigenous cultures and the political institutions of the United States
through legal and political debate. Dr. Hoxie’s powerful narrative connects
the individual to the tribe, the tribe to the nation, and the nation to broader
historical processes. Dr. Hoxie is the winner of the 2012 American Indian History
Lifetime Achievement Award and a founding trustee of the National Museum of the
American Indian.

Out of Many: A Multicultural Festival of Music, Dance, and Story January 18 to 20, 10 am to 5:30 pm EST

Who better than an Indian museum to say "Hail to the chief"? As our neighbor the U.S. Capitol hosts the presidential inauguration, we salute the occasion with a festival featuring music, dance,
and storytelling throughout the museum. Check our online calendar as inauguration weekend approaches to see what we’re offering online. E pluribus unam!

Racist Stereotypes and Cultural Appropriation in American SportsThursday, February 7, 10 am to 5:45 pm EST

Illustration by Aaron Sechrist. Used with permission

Join us for a thought-provoking day examining one of the most
persistent issues that divides Natives and non-Natives in our sports-loving land. This symposium of panel discussions presents commentators, scholars, authors, and representatives from sports organizations exploring the
mythology and psychology of sports stereotypes and mascots, reaction to the NCAA’s policy against “hostile and abusive” names and
symbols, and the on-going debate about the name and logo
of the Washington, D.C., professional football organization. We invite the
webcast public to join us in the conversation through Twitter. Tweet your
comments and questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the
hashtag #RacistSportsLogos.

This program was originally scheduled for November 1, 2012, and was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy.

Missed a Webcast?

If you missed a live
webcast that you really wanted to see, don’t worry. We post nearly all of our
webcasts on the NMAI YouTube Channel. You may find the webcast
you're looking for in one of our playlists or by clicking the Browse Videos tab, where posted
videos appear in reverse chronological order.